More and more companies are deciding to invest in quality marketing to get their message out, but even so, when we meet new web design or e-commerce clients, the topic quickly turns to cost: “How much will this WordPress website cost?”
The main factors influencing the cost of a website developed by a professional firm are:
Quality of design: Does the site look professional? Is it created using a template, a customized template or a fully custom site or theme?
Quality of functionality: What does the site do? Is it a simple brochure site or a more advanced storefront to sell products?
Level of support: How responsive and communicative are the web designers? Are they native speakers of your language? Do they live nearby and are they available to discuss changes on the phone?
Currently WordPress websites are very popular. Here are some common prices for WordPress web designers in San Diego:
Economy WordPress Package
A simple package with up to 9 or 10 pages, compatible with mobile and desktop devices, with one custom form and newsletter sign-up form. The designer would create the site based on the client’s specification with usually no more than three revisions to the design. The ideal client for this package is a small business needing to get going now.
The typical cost for this package is $2,500 to $3,000.
Standard WordPress Package
This package would typically include up to 15 or 20 pages, social media sharing features, more advanced SEO configuration, a slideshow added. In this case two or three design ideas would be provided for the client to choose, with up to three revisions included for the chosen design. An ideal candidate for this package is a more serious firm who understands the importance of inbound marketing and wants to really get their hands dirty to work hard to drive sales to their business.
The typical cost for a Standard WordPress Package is from $3,500 – $5,500.
Premium WordPress Package
For the business serious about their image and inbound marketing, the Premium Package would include a custom design based on the client’s specification, customized forms, calendars, event schedules or members sections with two designs to choose from, social media landing pages and up to three other keyword landing pages, advanced search engine optimization and performance enhancements.
The typical Premium Package cost is $7,500 – $12,000.
When you’re choosing web designers in San Diego or elsewhere, be wary of firms quoting amazingly cheap prices – if it seems ‘too good to be true’, it probably is! Think about how long your web design candidates have been in business, how much experience they have, and how well they communicate with you. Those aspects can make or break your web design project and mean the difference between being highly satisfied with your marketing campaign or being left with a poorly designed or non-working website.
Responsive Web Design
in Optimizing A Website, Website DesignAccording to this Pew study, 56% of Americans have smart phones of one kind or another. If your website isn’t optimized for small screens you may be alienating half the market! There are a couple of options for making sites look good on mobile devices, but the current best practice according to Google is Responsive Web Design.
What is Responsive Web Design?
The whole concept of Responsive Web Design arose when we started looking at sites on mobile devices. Most of these devices have screens that are narrower than our desktop machines. This means that websites designed for full-width desktop screens look either too small or just plain strange on the very narrow mobile devices.
Responsive Web Design (RWD) compensates for this by using rules to re-draw the web page depending on the width of the viewer’s screen. It’s basically the same page, but its just handled differently by the browser on the device. You can tell if a website is responsive by simply re-sizing the screen width. If the appearance changes when you reduce the width, you’re looking at a responsive website.
Advantages of RWD
Have you ever visited a website on your phone and it just didn’t look right? Maybe it was all small, or some items were laid out off the side of the page. It’s pretty frustrating and often can be a huge turn-off for your customers. A responsive design caters to the screen size and automatically re-draws so everything is in view.
Using good RWD practices it’s even possible to make buttons larger for touch-screen devices so they’re easier to push with your fingers, compared to your mouse.
Responsive vs. Adaptive web design
Another option to make websites compatible with mobile devices is for the serving site to actually detect which device is requesting the website and serve a different page for the device. This is known as Adaptive Web Design. The difference here is that RWD doesn’t care who loads the page, only the width of the viewing device screen, whereas Adaptive tailors the content to the device.
They’re both good options, but at RemedyOne we prefer Responsive web design. It fits with our style of keeping things simple. We don’t care which device looks at the page- we just adjust for screen sizes. It’s simpler, quicker, and is the generally recommended practice in web design.
Another potential weakness with an adaptive approach is that often mobile devices don’t identify themselves properly when they request websites. With the fast pace of technological improvements, device identification can be tough to keep up with. This is less of a problem with responsive web design because your site doesn’t need to know the ‘who’ of the device – just the ‘how wide’!
Considerations
In some cases, you might not need your site to be responsive, or an adaptive site might even be a better option for your company site. As a leading San Diego web design company, RemedyOne should be your first call for responsive web design. And once we’ve got your responsive site up and running, we can make sure it’s optimized for search, conversions and help you use your site as a business development tool to grow your company.
SEO Tips 2014
in SEO- Search Engine OptimizationIn the old days, the focus was all about stuffing keywords into documents and trying similar techniques to get your sites to the top of the search engines. We’re hearing a lot about how ‘SEO is Dead’ in 2014, but it’s far from dead – it’s just changing. Here are our SEO Tips 2014:
The first step is always your site.
Now more than ever, a well-designed website is key to your success. What’s the point of any traffic to your site if you don’t have a clear, well designed site with a clear call to action for your prospects? The search engines are behaving more like people and less like robots – so embrace that! Make your site stand out.
Optimize for your customers, not for search engine bots
As the search engines get smarter and smarter, the old ‘tricks’ and techniques won’t work. You actually have to present high quality value to your customers – and if you do so, you will be rewarded! In the past, some agencies were less than honest in their techniques of link building and keyword stuffing and so on. Now, it’s much more real. Good content equals value and leads to high rankings.
Provide value
In this way, SEO will just be a part of your overall online marketing campaign. Your advertising, PR and event marketing campaigns provide value to your prospects, right? So should your online marketing. Focus on the content first and the search ranking will follow.
Remember the long tail
With the arrival of Siri and voice activated searches, exact keyword matches are becoming less relevant, and a more conversational style of searching is the focus. So, use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to research other, more obscure keywords. But above all, write naturally and provide value.
Use multimedia
When a user visits your site and stays for a long time, they have a low ‘bounce rate’ – an indicator that your content is interesting for them. You can track this using a service like Google Analytics. A great way to provide this interest and keep people on your site is by producing multimedia content like videos. If your videos express something valuable in a funny or interesting way, you’ll be well on your way to lowering your bounce rate.
Don’t forget the old techniques that work
SEO is changing, and times are different, but the old methods of on-page optimization are still highly valuable. Don’t forget about making properly coded pages with a good structure. A good web design company or SEO services company can help you make sure your website design is set up to take advantage of the new search landscape.
In the years ahead the search engines are only going to get smarter. So, take advantage of this trend by smartening up your marketing materials and content.
Legal Web Design: 6 Essential Tips to grow your practice
in Optimizing A Website, Website DesignAs an attorney, there are a few absolute must-dos when developing your website as a lead generation tool. There are also a couple of things to watch out for and avoid. Here’s our list:
1. Make it look good
A simple way to stand out from your competition is to have a better-looking site. Front-end design and user experience is highly important, and will set your site apart from the rest. From our experience as a leading San Diego web design firm, most small practice attorneys are simply too busy to devote the time to stay up-to-date on the latest design trends. A good website designer will have a portfolio of beautifully designed sites.
2. Own it
Many Legal web design specialty firms charge a monthly fee, and retain ownership of the website for a certain amount of time. This practice is quite unusual in the larger web development community and I really suggest you avoid it. There’s no reason you shouldn’t have full ownership and complete control of your website from day one.
3. Flexibility is key
The best online marketers understand that any conversion system needs constant testing, improvement, and tweaking. It’s more of a process than you might initially expect, so it’s very important that the site framework that you choose has the ability to be upgraded, altered, edited and improved as time goes by. There are a number of easy-to-use and economical frameworks out there such as WordPress. Make sure your solution is freely available for developers – that way if things don’t work out with your initial developer, you can always go to another firm for changes in the future.
4. Optimize it for search
What good is your site without people looking at it? Not much, really. And how do people find legal websites? That’s right, the search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not rocket science, but it makes a huge difference and should be done. The best SEO techniques are continuous and constant, and complement your practice’s marketing plan. Most attorneys are simply too busy with their practice to be able to effectively focus on SEO so they hire specialists such as us to take on that responsibility.
5. Make it FAST
Once you have people landing at your site, help make their experience positive by providing a super-fast website. Don’t keep your potential clients waiting – every second counts when your competition is only a click away. There are numerous page speed testing sites (such as Pingdom)- simply enter your site’s URL and click ‘test’! If your site is slow or gets a low grade, consider having a web developer take a look at potential optimizations.
6. Don’t forget about conversions!
Most ‘web designers’ or SEO specialists focus on traffic only. We take a different approach – what’s the use of having thousands of site visitors if you still don’t see any sales from those visits? We test your site to see what’s working and what’s not, then improve and optimize the site with a focus on your Call to Action.
Like I said above – none of this is magic, and truly anyone can do it. But when you want everything taken care of, with a ‘no worries’ approach, it’s worth finding a legal web design firm who’s experience and attitude matches with your vision for your practice.
Selling Online: Easy E-commerce Options
in E-commerceSelling products online has never been easier, with tools available to make setting up shop possible, even for people without a strong technical background. Although the most professional online stores are usually custom-built by web design specialists, there are many options out there for the startup or small business. Here are some of your options for setting up an online store.
Hosted Store
These are great options for the budget-conscious business owner. They are surprisingly cheap and offer support for many different payment gateways and merchant accounts. The basic premise of these ‘hosted’ sites is that your store is created using the company’s proprietary system and lives on their servers for a monthly charge.
You won’t have as much flexibility as you have with a fully custom e-commerce solution, but if your business is just starting out and you don’t have the resources to hire a web designer, Shopify and BigCommerce are great options for you.
With a very low barrier to entry, you can get started selling your product from day one. Upload and go!
WooCommerce Store
Open source options like WordPress with WooCommerce or OpenCart are frameworks that have evolved from humble beginnings to be quite capable and solid choices for the business wanting a little more control over their store’s look and functionality. While it’s still very possible to set up your own store using a self-hosted solution like WordPress with WooCommerce or OpenCart, we recommend using an experienced web designer to develop your store. You’ll save time and money and be able to start selling more quickly than if you have to learn the technical details yourself.
These types of solutions fall somewhere in between the hosted solutions and fully customized solutions – you have quite a bit of flexibility with both the design and the functions of your store, while keeping the overheads quite low.
Enterprise-Level Online Store
Solutions like Magento (owned by Ebay) are highly capable online stores that require talented developers to set up. Your store will gain a high level of design, strength and customizability, with an increased development time and cost. This option is suitable for more established businesses who want to be set up to grow exponentially, and who have the budget to embark on such a project.
100% Custom E-commerce Store
One of our clients had a point-of-sale and inventory management system they used in their retail locations, so their online store needed to track sales and inventory movements and record them in the point-of-sale system. There was simply nothing available that had the functionality they needed. We created an entire online store system for them, and built in the ability for the store to communicate with their point of sale system. With custom solutions, the cost is highest, but the flexibility is supreme.
What does a WordPress website cost?
in Website DesignMore and more companies are deciding to invest in quality marketing to get their message out, but even so, when we meet new web design or e-commerce clients, the topic quickly turns to cost: “How much will this WordPress website cost?”
The main factors influencing the cost of a website developed by a professional firm are:
Quality of design: Does the site look professional? Is it created using a template, a customized template or a fully custom site or theme?
Quality of functionality: What does the site do? Is it a simple brochure site or a more advanced storefront to sell products?
Level of support: How responsive and communicative are the web designers? Are they native speakers of your language? Do they live nearby and are they available to discuss changes on the phone?
Currently WordPress websites are very popular. Here are some common prices for WordPress web designers in San Diego:
Economy WordPress Package
A simple package with up to 9 or 10 pages, compatible with mobile and desktop devices, with one custom form and newsletter sign-up form. The designer would create the site based on the client’s specification with usually no more than three revisions to the design. The ideal client for this package is a small business needing to get going now.
The typical cost for this package is $2,500 to $3,000.
Standard WordPress Package
This package would typically include up to 15 or 20 pages, social media sharing features, more advanced SEO configuration, a slideshow added. In this case two or three design ideas would be provided for the client to choose, with up to three revisions included for the chosen design. An ideal candidate for this package is a more serious firm who understands the importance of inbound marketing and wants to really get their hands dirty to work hard to drive sales to their business.
The typical cost for a Standard WordPress Package is from $3,500 – $5,500.
Premium WordPress Package
For the business serious about their image and inbound marketing, the Premium Package would include a custom design based on the client’s specification, customized forms, calendars, event schedules or members sections with two designs to choose from, social media landing pages and up to three other keyword landing pages, advanced search engine optimization and performance enhancements.
The typical Premium Package cost is $7,500 – $12,000.
When you’re choosing web designers in San Diego or elsewhere, be wary of firms quoting amazingly cheap prices – if it seems ‘too good to be true’, it probably is! Think about how long your web design candidates have been in business, how much experience they have, and how well they communicate with you. Those aspects can make or break your web design project and mean the difference between being highly satisfied with your marketing campaign or being left with a poorly designed or non-working website.
Great Looking E-Commerce Websites
in Web Talk8 Ways to Mobilize Landing Pages
in Web TalkCountering the Google Plus Image Problem
in Web TalkWhile there are contradictory reports on the success (or lack thereof) experienced by Google Plus, it is impossible to deny that it has become a hot topic in the high-tech community. From the outside it seems that the platform has failed to take off, yet if you ask anyone on the inside, they will swear that it is the fastest-growing Google product the company has released to date. Where is the disconnect? Read on to find out more
Tradeshift Builds Cloudscan To Get Suppliers E-Invoicing
in Web TalkWhile many suppliers are stuck in the past sending invoices via PDF or email, Denmark’s Tradeshift is providing a modern and effective alternative which they call Cloudscan. This new service offered by Tradeshift gives businesses a unique email address where invoices can be sent and received and have seemingly moved the high-tech world into the age of electronic invoicing. The kicker? They are offering the e-invoicing services entirely free to suppliers and SME’s! Read Article
Find out more about CloudScan
What can E-commcerce do for you?
in Web TalkMany businesses can benefit greatly from the integration of E-commerce capabilities to their current web presence but many of them don’t even realize that they qualify. This comprehensive tool that can make doing business much more simple and effective. Is your company missing out on a golden opportunity? Check out a recent E-commerce success story from the Girl Scouts of America, and see how easily their story can translate to your companies needs! Click here to read article